Latest / NY's Sports Loud Mouth (VIDEO) / Mike Tomlin STEPS DOWN after 19 years as Steelers head coach!

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Mike Tomlin STEPS DOWN after 19 years as Steelers head coach! · NY's Sports Loud Mouth (VIDEO)

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  Any questions? What is this?
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  This is the Jabba and the Mouth show he.
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  website and get your 10% off. And now, ladies and gentlemen,
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  for the first time on JABBA in the mouth.
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  My craziness. She's never probably seen
• 1:44
  anything like it. Well, now we have a very special
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  guest. We are talking to Newsday Mets
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  beat writer Laura Albanese. Laura, what's up?
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  Not much. How are you guys doing?
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  We are good. I don't know about you.
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  I mean, there's a lot to get into with the New York Mets.
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  We, you know, it's crazy. We had Bobby Valentine on last
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  week and we asked him what he thought about the ownership and
• 2:08
  Steve Cohen and, and, and I asked him, I was honest with
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  him. I said, do you think Steve Cohen
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  has done the right job so far over the last, I would say the
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  last year or so. And he said, well, I, I love
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  Steve and I love what him and his wife does.
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  And, and I, I'm not going to count them out.
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  I'm not going to count or attack anything they've done.
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  They've done a lot of great things for the New York Mets.
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  So my question to you is, you saw Pete Alonzo and Edwin Diaz
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  go to separate teams. One guy that never got a
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  contract offer and the other guy went to a team that you can't
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  stand as a Met fan, you can't stand the LA Dodgers.
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  And you look at it, you look at their offseason.
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  Do you think this is a winning offseason so far in the position
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  that they are in? Well, no.
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  I mean, the offseason is still very, very in its early stages,
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  so. But right now, absolutely not.
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  If you're a Mets fan, you're ripping out your hair.
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  You're like, OK, there goes Pete Alonzo, there goes Brandon
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  Nimmo, even Jeff McNeil. There was like some
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  consternation. And then obviously, you lose
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  Edwin Diaz, which is probably kind of the biggest snack in the
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  face because the Mets very, very much wanted to have Edwin Diaz
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  back. But what does it say that your
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  closer goes to the Dodgers for $5,000,000 more and then doesn't
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  even give you a chance to counter offer?
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  It indicates that he kind of just didn't want to be there
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  anymore. I mean, like $5 million at that
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  point. You want to go, you have to
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  uproot your entire family, go across country.
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  He wants it to be a Dodger. So now, you know, it's kind of
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  getting a little bit late early. It feels like if they don't nail
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  this Kyle Tucker acquisition, which we're hearing, you know,
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  Tucker might make a decision as soon as tomorrow, you're kind of
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  scrambling. Look at their roster.
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  They have two outfielders. The last time I checked, you
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  needed three, so at least three. So you got that going for you.
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  Their rotation, Do they have the depth?
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  Yeah, but there's a lot of question marks there.
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  And then they have, you know, approximately like 900
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  infielders. So I mean, like, the roster
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  construction is a little bit confounding right now.
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  Yeah. I was going to mention that with
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  the pitching because I think the Mets since David Stern's taken
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  over and even before that too with with Eppler, it seems like
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  they never either trade or sign for pitchers in their prime.
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  They went after Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander, who were in
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  their 40s when the Mets signed them, and it seems like they're
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  and rumors for these other pitchers, Freddie Peralta being
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  the most recent one. But now it seems like the
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  Yankees are the favorites. So are you surprised that the
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  Mets have not taken the approach to get more starting pitching to
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  help out the kids like McLean and not put a lot of pressure on
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  him? Not necessarily.
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  I think we've seen from David Sirn's track record that he does
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  not like really offering these big long term contracts to
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  pitchers because pitchers tend to get hurt.
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  And so you see Ranger Suarez going for five years, you're
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  going to look and you're going to say, OK, for Amber Valdez is
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  probably going to get something really similar.
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  Do you want to give forever Valdez five years where he's a
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  very good pitcher, but he's not really the ace that they're
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  necessarily looking for their their philosophy has been pretty
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  consistent in that they want to be able to develop internally.
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  They they struck gold with Nolan McLean.
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  If you can stay healthy and you know he's going to the world
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  baseball classic. So go ahead and hold your
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  breath, even though it's really awesome that and I think it's
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  cool. And then after that, he.
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  How much do you give for Freddie Peralta?
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  Because a lot of people want Freddie Peralta and the asking
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  price is going to be high. I don't even think you even look
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  at school at this point. They're going to want your
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  entire farm system if you're going to get a guy at that
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  caliber. So they're in a little bit of a
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  difficult position. Yeah, but they're also counting
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  whether for good or for bad on those internal options.
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  The idea that Shawn Manaya is going to have a real spring
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  training, Christian Scott coming back from Tommy John surgery,
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  Tom and others development. There is a lot, a lot of what
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  ifs. And you know, on the one hand,
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  that can be exciting if if you're a gambling man, on the
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  other hand, you saw what happened in the second-half of
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  the season when no one can pitch into the 5th or 6th inning.
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  Don't. Worry Steve Cohen's building a
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  casino. It might be perfect for that,
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  yeah. Oh, I've heard, yeah.
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  So Laura, you said, you said to you kind of touched on it with
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  like Stearns and and his track record of not doing like long
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  term contracts. What you you know better than we
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  do. What from the front office side
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  is and I got a little bit of David Stearns playing from the
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  front office side. What leverage does he have or
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  does he the final decision to make if he makes those contracts
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  to get it? A guy like Freddie knowing the
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  asking price and whatever it is. I think that's a really
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  interesting question because I think that there has been a
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  shift. I do think that maybe last
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  offseason Steve Cohen had a more hands on approach and right now
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  he's kind of, you're kind of seeing him give Stearns the keys
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  to the Kingdom a little bit more.
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  It's like, all right, we're going to sink or we're going to
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  swim. And you're going to like, prove
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  to me what you can do to construct this team.
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  And I mean, like, you don't become a billionaire because
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  you're bad at business. And you don't become a
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  billionaire by hiring guys that you don't trust.
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  You can't do everything yourself.
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  So he hired Stearns for a very specific reason.
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  He courted Stearns. He waited a long time, and now
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  he's saying, OK, let's do your vision your way because
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  obviously last season, for as many of you know, as many
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  superstars as that team had, was a complete and utter disaster.
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  And sometimes that could happen when there are too many cooks in
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  the kitchen. So it really does feel like this
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  offseason is being very much guided by David Stearns, his
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  philosophy. We are talking to Newsday Mets
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  beat writer Laura Albanese. You know, you mentioned David
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  Stearns. Now my question here is, here it
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  is for you is if David Stearns has another bad year, he doesn't
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  land Kyle Tucker. And even if he does land Kyle
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  Tucker and he falls short again for the playoffs, is his job in
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  jeopardy? I don't necessarily think so.
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  I think he's got probably one more year after that.
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  I think there was too much work put into this.
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  I think if anyone is going to kind of like bear the brunt of
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  this, it's going to be Carlos Mendoza.
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  Usually when you know, your entire coaching staff gets
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  fired, it's the Canary in the coal mine where you're you're
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  probably going to be next on the chopping block.
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  And then maybe after that, if if there continues to be a
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  situation where Stearns is not producing, then maybe Steve
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  Cohen decides to move on. I mean, it hasn't been a
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  complete disaster. 2024 was a very good season.
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  And a lot of that had to do with Stern's ability to kind of like
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  find those diamonds in the rough and be like, OK, let's let's put
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  together, let's put together all these pieces and have it work.
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  2025 they you could say, well, you know, there were a bunch of
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  nagging injuries. There were there were a lot of
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  things that kind of worked against them. 2026 is going to
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  be pivotal for him. I don't think it's going to cost
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  him his job, but I do think we're going, it's going to be
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  kind of like a really good litmus test of what he can do
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  because David Stearns, he's a very patient person.
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  Like, he's not the type of guy who's just gonna throw money
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  away just to throw money away just because he has the richest
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  owner in baseball backing him. Well, but there is kind of has
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  to be that balance because you can be patient.
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  You can be patient, but suddenly you're so patient, you're backed
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  into a corner because you know, there aren't that many marquee
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  free agents left and you still need to fill out this roster.
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  We're probably going to see him a lot more active kind of in the
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  trade market, I would assume, because they do have that
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  capital they have now. They've built one of the best
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  farm systems in baseball. And that is one of David Stern's
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  things like that. That is what he was
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  concentrating on. So do that.
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  And he he he is confident in those like those young kids.
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  Like he keeps bringing up Carson Bench as a real possibility to
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  be a starting center fielder. McClain show what he can do.
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  Obviously Jonah Tong is still really green, but there's
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  obviously a lot of interest there.
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  His name keeps showing up in like in trade conversations.
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  So there are points of optimism. And I do think that as these
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  young players develop, that's one of the reasons why I feel
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  like he'll be safe this year. You really have to see their
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  full potential. We have to see what they can do,
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  but. Laura, you don't know if these
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  guys are going to develop. Me and Jabba talk about this all
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  the time. These are guys that are getting
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  called up. We don't know if they're going
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  to develop into stars. We don't know if they're going
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  to be subpar players at best or bench players.
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  They might be sent down. Look at look at Anthony Volpe.
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  He had one Goodyear and then all of a sudden Yankee fans want to
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  throw him to the dust. They don't want anything to do
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  with him anymore because he had a bad season.
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  And and again I agree with you. I think David Stearns is safe
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  right now. But if he has another season
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  where they're they were playing great baseball in the first half
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  and then completely fall off and have one of the biggest drop
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  offs we've ever seen and a Major League team ever have and do it
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  again. The.
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  Way the biggest in history. Yeah, I mean, and who was the
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  other team that did it? It was another Met team.
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  So it was there were two Met teams that done a trend.
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  It's a trend for the Mets. And and I look at David Stearns.
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  I I I honestly believe that if this happens again, as good as
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  he had in his rookie season and they went all the way as far as
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  they did. I think that was a a fast pace.
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  Very lucky how everything fell together for the New York Mets.
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  I don't know if he's going to be so lucky with the New York Met
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  fans. The fans were killing him at the
• 11:18
  end of the season and as good as Juan so to was and he was a
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  great acquisition when the going got tough, he was the only one
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  that hit. Everybody else couldn't hit.
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  So I mean that's the problem right now with the New York Mets
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  and yay. And remember David Stearns got
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  away. They he decided to move on for
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  Brandon Nimmo, another fan favorite by the New York Met
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  fans, and Pete Alonzo was one of the biggest in history for the
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  New York Met. Fans a family favorite too,
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  because I played with his brother at Nebraska.
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  So I followed Nimmo through Wyoming, through all the other
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  stuff. And that's I'd love that You
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  touched on that too. Do you think there's a part of
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  what the Mets are like the nucleus of what they created and
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  now they're kind of moving in a different direction?
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  Do you think? Was that like not scripted?
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  But what why are you moving away from what you built and these
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  integral pieces of what you've had?
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  And obviously you, you brought in Frankie, you brought in Juan,
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  but like the centerpieces of what you had in Pete and Nimmo
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  and why, why did they feel like they needed to move on from
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  that? It was such a huge gamble too.
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  Like just to start off, like the idea that you blow up your core,
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  but you don't necessarily have a foolproof kind of like
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  replacement already kind of in the wings was wild to me.
• 12:42
  I mean, this is really David Stern's gambling on himself.
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  But he really projected that he was going to do that even like,
• 12:47
  OK, so right after they get eliminated, we're over in Miami
• 12:50
  and we're they're like, OK, get on the plane.
• 12:53
  David Stern's is doing a post mortem the day after and like
• 12:55
  it's literally been hours since you've been eliminated.
• 12:58
  And he was already projecting. Like something needs to change.
• 13:03
  It needs to be a big shake up. So a lot has been talked about,
• 13:06
  you know, like the the culture in the clubhouse, the culture in
• 13:09
  the clubhouse, just being around there every day.
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  Like, I don't know, I'm, I'm, you know, like it's very
• 13:13
  different from what people project to the media than what's
• 13:15
  going on behind closed doors. We're only in there for 50
• 13:18
  minutes a day and then post game or whatever else.
• 13:21
  But yeah, there there were guys who didn't necessarily talk to
• 13:24
  other guys and that's fine. Not everyone has to be best
• 13:27
  friends, that's cool. But when you start losing,
• 13:30
  suddenly those tensions can get a little bit thornier and I
• 13:33
  think you saw that a little bit towards the second-half of the
• 13:35
  season and. You on the beat, you see it
• 13:39
  every day. And I I understand that to an
• 13:43
  extent because I'm still friends with some of the beat writers
• 13:45
  that covered me, but you see it from a different perspective.
• 13:50
  Did did you, do you think that that was the move that needed to
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  be made? Because I know the Nimmo family.
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  I know exactly what they are and they are one of. 2 They're
• 14:02
  delightful. Of the earth.
• 14:04
  They're delightful. People they're it's unbelievable
• 14:06
  like you guys are way too nice. You guys aren't real like this.
• 14:10
  You guys aren't real. It's like his older brother
• 14:12
  Bryce. And I'm just like, you guys
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  aren't real and I'm like, you need that for the culture of the
• 14:20
  clubhouse. Did they think they, like you
• 14:22
  said, do you like the shake up? Like you need somebody to come
• 14:25
  in as Ariel and I have argued about this, you need a Jazz
• 14:29
  Chisholm, you need a guy with with that kind of bounce, that
• 14:32
  swag, that grip, like all that thing.
• 14:36
  Do you think that was kind of part of kind of what they doing
• 14:38
  with the second-half fall off? A little bit, possibly because
• 14:43
  it seemed like they could, just couldn't get out of their own
• 14:45
  heads. I mean, the clubhouse was tense,
• 14:49
  not in the negative way, but just like literally like, Oh no,
• 14:52
  guys, something's going down. But it was also like very
• 14:55
  professional, you know, the Brandon Nimmo thing.
• 14:59
  I think that was a full on business decision.
• 15:01
  His contract was not going to appreciate well.
• 15:04
  And we're seeing Sterns kind of like go in with a sort of like
• 15:08
  surgical precision that completely kind of throws
• 15:11
  sentimentality out. That is an interesting thing
• 15:16
  because like I've, I've said it once, I said a million times,
• 15:19
  baseball is a business, but businesses are full of people
• 15:21
  and personalities matter. Leadership matters.
• 15:25
  You know, being able to, to kind of bring guys together and bring
• 15:28
  them out of that rut. You know, that is actually a
• 15:32
  skill set. So getting rid of Nimmo, who is
• 15:35
  one of those guys, but who I feel like maybe probably was not
• 15:39
  as vocal toward the latter half of the season and, and, and kind
• 15:42
  of tossing him out. That's that's tough.
• 15:46
  And then you also have to kind of like fill in that vacuum and
• 15:49
  how are you going to do it? So, you know, like I, I do feel
• 15:53
  like sometimes the idea of chemistry is overblown.
• 15:55
  But like when you simply can't stop a losing streak because
• 15:59
  everyone is pressing and everyone is tense and nobody
• 16:02
  really wants to talk to each other anymore, Suddenly it does
• 16:04
  become a little bit of an issue. But like, but then you ask
• 16:07
  Stearns about it and we have and he's like, well, you know, like,
• 16:11
  you can't predict chemistry. And to a certain extent, that's
• 16:15
  true because a lot of the same guys that maybe didn't have that
• 16:18
  same chemistry in 2025 had really good chemistry in 2024.
• 16:21
  Things are constantly shifting in the baseball landscape.
• 16:24
  We are talking to Newsday Mets beat writer Laura Albanese.
• 16:28
  Good speed I. Was going to ask being you
• 16:30
  covered the Yankees for a little bit before you joined the Mets,
• 16:33
  I think two years ago or whenever you did.
• 16:34
  The philosophy, the philosophy that we've seen the Mets do is
• 16:37
  take a lot of ex Yankees, which I guess Steve Cohen's trying to
• 16:40
  be the the little, the trying to rise into the Big Brother of New
• 16:43
  York or whatever. Love that whole thing that Mets
• 16:45
  fans love. But what is your thought
• 16:46
  process? A lot of those signings with
• 16:48
  montage not working out. Somebody like Clay Holmes kind
• 16:50
  of up and down this year and then doing it again with some of
• 16:51
  the moves this year. I mean, I don't necessarily mind
• 16:53
  it. I just go with the best player
• 16:55
  available to you that you can get, even if they happen to play
• 16:57
  in the Bronx. And there is one thing to that
• 17:01
  credit, which is like, alright, you know, when Cody Bellander
• 17:04
  came to the Yankees, everyone like he's not going to be able
• 17:06
  to hack it. He's not going to be able to
• 17:07
  hack it under the bright lights. And he did fine.
• 17:11
  So you look at people and there is something to be said about
• 17:14
  having a track record of being able to play in New York.
• 17:18
  Can it be overblown sometimes? Maybe.
• 17:20
  But it is it is kind of a different sort of landscape.
• 17:24
  When let's say, you know, you blow a lead in the 9th inning
• 17:27
  and you've got like 2 reporters talking to you and you're like,
• 17:30
  hey, whatever. And then you blow a lead in the
• 17:31
  9th inning in the Yankees and suddenly you're surrounded by a
• 17:34
  zombie horde of all of us going why?
• 17:37
  Why did this happen? Like it's a completely different
• 17:39
  thing. And there is a psychology.
• 17:42
  There is a psychology to that. You know, like some players go
• 17:45
  in and the last thing that they want and like God's green earth
• 17:48
  is to be on the Backpage of the New York Post.
• 17:50
  So, Laura? That isn't some people's minds.
• 17:52
  Arrow, hold on. I'm going to touch on this
• 17:54
  because I'm the only one that can.
• 17:58
  We talked about this and you touched on it too, because you
• 18:03
  obviously see it and you see it from a different realm.
• 18:07
  It's the reason why I said this. As soon as Devin Williams
• 18:11
  started failing, right? He's not in Milwaukee anymore.
• 18:15
  Like you said, there's not two or three reporters.
• 18:18
  You have everybody and you have to answer to that.
• 18:21
  And why, like, I think in certain ways, when you get to
• 18:26
  the bright lights or whatever you want to say is when you now
• 18:31
  have to have 20 to 30 people sitting at your locker because
• 18:37
  it's a different, it's a different bird.
• 18:40
  It's a different bird being here and why I agree with you 100%.
• 18:44
  You don't you don't mind that, that they come over and steal
• 18:48
  them and do whatever because now they have the aspect of like,
• 18:52
  OK, I know if I do great or if I fail, what I should expect.
• 18:58
  And I think that's a huge part. And I think why like picking
• 19:03
  guys and taking them over there. I, I really think it, it does
• 19:07
  help because now it's, it's such a different market and you guys
• 19:12
  give us such a different realm of what you guys do because
• 19:17
  you're with us every day like you guys are with us every day.
• 19:21
  Yeah. And it's actually why I kind of
• 19:22
  like the Devin Williams signing because you know, like Devin
• 19:25
  Williams, he had a strong second-half of the year.
• 19:29
  How difficult must it be to come to New York essentially suck?
• 19:33
  Let's like there's no like there's no way around it.
• 19:37
  And then bring yourself back from that when you when you're
• 19:41
  suddenly like in a completely different market and you're
• 19:43
  surrounded by people and you hit free agency and you can go
• 19:46
  wherever you want and you're like, I'm going to go back into
• 19:50
  the Thunderdome. I think that shows something.
• 19:52
  I think that shows something really important.
• 19:53
  I think that he'll do well because now he knows what it
• 19:56
  means. Sure, it wasn't because he
• 19:58
  wanted to go back to David Stearns.
• 20:01
  I I don't know, I mean, I do actually think he really likes
• 20:04
  New York. No it.
• 20:05
  Didn't seem like it because when he came to the Yankees, as soon
• 20:09
  as he, he went to, he decided to sign with the Mets.
• 20:12
  He puts up on his Twitter a picture of him or the Mets, you
• 20:16
  know, hat and everything like that.
• 20:17
  He didn't do that when he was a Yankee.
• 20:19
  And and that to me, I, I don't think he really wanted to be
• 20:22
  with the Yankees. Laura, Laura, Laura presented
• 20:24
  that in the same in and she did it very delicate because now he
• 20:29
  knows now and he knows what that means to be in a New York
• 20:33
  market. So, So what that means, what
• 20:35
  that means to fans. Why am I still relevant?
• 20:38
  I've been retired for eight years.
• 20:40
  Why am I still relevant? And I can go back and do
• 20:42
  signings and get paid stupid money to do dumb shit.
• 20:45
  But. That has nothing to do with a
• 20:47
  guy. Like, but I embraced it.
• 20:49
  I embraced it exactly what you said that he posted that now he
• 20:54
  understands what being in this huge market does.
• 20:58
  Oh, OK, so he was with the Yankees for a year and he
• 21:04
  understood what it was to be in New York.
• 21:07
  He failed to be with the Yankees.
• 21:08
  So, hey, you know what? I'm going to stay in New York.
• 21:10
  I'm going to go to the other team.
• 21:12
  Great. That's wonderful.
• 21:13
  I'll be known as a New York Met for the rest of my.
• 21:15
  Career, the best possible pro job and I was like, my fingers
• 21:18
  are crossed. I'm like, man, I hope when Devin
• 21:21
  does his introductory press conference, I hope he does a
• 21:23
  clean shape and that'll be the history of the planet.
• 21:27
  He did not. He kept the beard for the Mets
• 21:29
  press conference. I can't stand looking at Devin
• 21:31
  Williams because I just after every single game, when he
• 21:35
  failed, he didn't have a good approach to speaking to the
• 21:39
  media. He just found a way to duck and
• 21:41
  weave the media. And, and to me, if you love New
• 21:44
  Yorker, you want to stay in New York and you understand what it
• 21:47
  is to be in New York, like Jabba is saying, then you have to
• 21:50
  understand that you have to speak to the media.
• 21:52
  You have to understand how the media is going to attack you.
• 21:55
  They push back on that a little bit because I was speaking, you
• 21:57
  know, like when the Mets signed David Williams.
• 21:59
  I obviously go to my, my Co workers over at, you know, who
• 22:02
  covered the Yankees and I'm, I'm like, Hey, you know, I, I only
• 22:04
  was able to cover him on the Yankees for, for so long because
• 22:07
  I was doing all met stuff and a few people said the same thing.
• 22:11
  He's like, he actually got like better with the media the more
• 22:15
  he struggled. And that is a very rare quality
• 22:18
  to have. And I think, I think that does
• 22:21
  speak to his character. And I do think that that speaks
• 22:24
  to his ability to take accountability.
• 22:25
  So maybe sometimes and it's weird because you know,
• 22:28
  sometimes the camera is on you and the lights are flashing and
• 22:32
  you know, players clam up because we're all human.
• 22:34
  We've all been there. But you get them one-on-one by
• 22:37
  by their locker and it's a different situation because
• 22:39
  you're just having a conversation person to person.
• 22:43
  Sometimes it's not just like, oh, he can't handle the media.
• 22:45
  Sometimes it's just really difficult to deal with a camera
• 22:48
  in your face and knowing that everything that you say is going
• 22:51
  to be widely scrutinized. So, Laura, you looking at the
• 22:54
  Mets right now? All right, if they strike out on
• 22:56
  Kyle Tucker now, I've heard through the Grapevine that the
• 23:00
  Mets are offering him 50 million, possibly five years
• 23:04
  with an opt out. Now, if that is true, the Mets
• 23:08
  have two play. If he signs with the Mets,
• 23:10
  they're going to have two players, one that's making
• 23:13
  68,000,000, the other one that's making 50 million.
• 23:16
  Their owner is spending almost $120 million a year on two
• 23:20
  players. And if they fail to make the
• 23:23
  playoffs, honestly, I understand you're saying the manager.
• 23:27
  I would say that I would get rid of the manager and the president
• 23:31
  of the organization. You cannot go into a season with
• 23:34
  this kind of lineup with Juan Soto, Kyle Tucker, Lindor and
• 23:39
  all this talent. And if you find a way to get a
• 23:41
  pitcher, maybe a Tarek Scubal, I mean, you're going to how's it
• 23:46
  going to work? How's it going to?
• 23:47
  Work so I do have like a hard and fast rule.
• 23:49
  I never call for anyone's job. I just like.
• 23:52
  That's just something. I know, I know.
• 23:54
  But I do understand where you're coming from.
• 23:56
  I I and I do think, yeah, it's probably going to be like
• 24:00
  Mendoza's going to have to be the flak jacket a little bit
• 24:02
  because they're going to give Stearns a little bit more of a
• 24:04
  leash. So you probably, yeah.
• 24:06
  If they don't make the playoffs, I don't see Mendoza surviving
• 24:10
  this. I think it's the end of his
• 24:11
  contract anyway, so they probably wouldn't renew it.
• 24:13
  Stearns, you know, like he has kind of like a five year plan.
• 24:18
  Steve, Steve Cohen has has seemingly bought in.
• 24:23
  But yeah, if you get Kyle Tucker and you don't make the playoffs,
• 24:27
  that's going to be an issue. I mean, and but there are like,
• 24:29
  there's so many. Like, OK, so you now you have
• 24:31
  two right fielders essentially, even though one of the yeah,
• 24:36
  they can both play either corner, but you have two right
• 24:38
  fielders locked in for like however many years, five years,
• 24:41
  four years, whatever Tucker ends up getting, you have no true
• 24:45
  first baseman. Oh, you got to wait a second.
• 24:48
  You sign Jorge Polanco, you're moving in the first for the
• 24:52
  first time in his career. That makes a lot of sense.
• 24:55
  Thank you, David. You've given us a strategy.
• 24:58
  Hey, playing first for a base is extremely easy.
• 25:01
  Tell him what? No.
• 25:04
  Well, like I, I, I, I do have my reservations about the Jorge
• 25:09
  Polanco Mark Vientos first place platoon.
• 25:13
  So let's see how that goes. Last question for me, I want to
• 25:17
  shift gears a little bit. I know you recently did an
• 25:18
  interview with with Billy Wagner, who just got inducted
• 25:20
  Hall of Fame last year. Good interview by the way.
• 25:22
  Yes, and obviously all the Hall of Fame controversy, Jeff Kent
• 25:26
  finally getting in this year. We talked about it with a
• 25:27
  Nationals play by play barcaster Charlie Slows, who's had his
• 25:31
  thoughts on the way they've operated.
• 25:32
  First of all, what was the interview like with him as you
• 25:35
  doing it as a player? And also, what are your thoughts
• 25:37
  on the Hall of Fame? OK, first of all, Billy Wagner
• 25:39
  is is so cool and you know, every time I get to talk to to
• 25:42
  some of these guys, we also have book show alter on a little bit
• 25:45
  more like I obviously I never played professional baseball.
• 25:48
  These guys have forgotten more about baseball than I will ever
• 25:50
  know. And the idea that just to be
• 25:52
  able to pick their brain and see kind of like a different version
• 25:56
  of a sport that I love is fantastic.
• 25:59
  So Billy was great. It was honestly just nice to see
• 26:02
  him exhale because I feel like he's spent the last 10 January's
• 26:06
  just in a state of like constant turmoil.
• 26:09
  And I was super proud because last year was my, my first year
• 26:13
  being allowed to, to vote for the Hall of Fame because you
• 26:16
  need 10 years of continuous service.
• 26:19
  And I, I, I banged that horn for Billy Wagner.
• 26:23
  And I was like, and I was on SNY at the time and they were like,
• 26:26
  Billy Wagner got in and my mouth just dropped open.
• 26:29
  Yes, justice for relievers. So I think that's cool.
• 26:33
  And, you know, he said some interesting stuff.
• 26:35
  He does think hopefully that relievers will be more valued in
• 26:39
  the future by Hall of Fame voters, especially as the voting
• 26:43
  class gets a little bit younger. I mean, those of us who are
• 26:46
  starting to get our votes now grew up in the age of the
• 26:49
  reliever. You know, we didn't grow up,
• 26:51
  grow up in the age of the, you know, every guys throw in a
• 26:53
  complete game, 140 pitches, whatever else.
• 26:56
  So we see the value. You know, we grew up with Billy
• 26:59
  Wagner, we grew up with Mariano Rivera, we grew up with Jumpy.
• 27:01
  Like, these are the guys like, you know, let all these guys are
• 27:06
  huge parts of our baseball experience.
• 27:08
  And so we put value on them even though they're not going to have
• 27:10
  the counting stats of a starting pitcher.
• 27:13
  So I do think that there's going to be a shift there.
• 27:16
  And in terms of the Hall of Fame, like, it's a cool thing.
• 27:20
  It's an honor to be able to get to vote.
• 27:22
  Do we always get it right? No.
• 27:25
  Do you Do you post yours? I do, but I have to wait until
• 27:28
  tomorrow, I believe, because my, my newspaper I write for Newsday
• 27:32
  wants us all to kind of do it at the same time.
• 27:36
  So I'll, I'll reveal my ballot tomorrow.
• 27:39
  But you know, spoiler alert, Carlos Beltran should be in the
• 27:41
  Hall of Fame. So we'll see about that.
• 27:44
  So I, and this is my last question and, and this is
• 27:47
  something that's near and dear to my heart because I've gotten
• 27:51
  to become friends beyond the business side of being a beat
• 27:56
  writer. And I know how hard it is
• 27:59
  because you first and foremost have a job and provide, but
• 28:05
  second of all, you have to get into us and to know us and for
• 28:09
  us to trust you. So what have what have you seen
• 28:15
  in your realm? And, and knowing the guys like
• 28:18
  George King and all these guys that have been in the post and
• 28:23
  Sweeney Murti and all these guys that I still am dear friends to
• 28:27
  this day. Fines and all these guys that
• 28:29
  have moved on doing different stuff, right?
• 28:32
  What? What would you give advice to
• 28:36
  players to be like? Hey, we're not here to attack
• 28:40
  you. We're here to praise you, but to
• 28:45
  be accountable at the same time. And I think it's exactly that.
• 28:50
  It's just I, I'm never in attack mode and I don't know that many
• 28:54
  of my colleagues are. Most of the time we're just
• 28:57
  trying to figure out why. If you're struggling, we're
• 28:59
  trying to figure out why, you know, because that's what fans
• 29:02
  are asking us about and we're trying to relay that
• 29:05
  information. And like, we all love baseball.
• 29:10
  I think there's like this, like thing of this like, oh, you
• 29:13
  know, the cranky baseball beat writers, they don't even like
• 29:15
  what they're doing and blah, blah.
• 29:16
  I could do your, your job better than you.
• 29:18
  And I'm like, dude, I would not be away from home 10 months out
• 29:22
  of the year if I hated the sport of baseball.
• 29:24
  Are you kidding me? I'm in Port Saint Lucie for 6
• 29:27
  1/2 weeks and I'm doing this because I hate baseball.
• 29:30
  There are other ways to make money like so I, you know, I
• 29:36
  think sometimes and we're all guilty of it.
• 29:39
  We do it to players, players do it to us.
• 29:42
  We tend to forget that everyone's just human.
• 29:45
  We're all going back to families.
• 29:47
  We're all trying to make, you know, enough money to get by
• 29:51
  and, or enough money to, you know, for generations to get by,
• 29:54
  depending on which job that you have.
• 29:57
  And I find what I've learned from the older guys is, you
• 30:01
  know, just try to engage in people on a human level helps a
• 30:05
  lot. And then you when you have that
• 30:08
  trust, don't portray it. And that doesn't mean never say
• 30:11
  anything bad because it's my job if something is bad to say, hey,
• 30:15
  this is bad. But it's also not taking pot
• 30:18
  shots. It's not like, you know, gotcha
• 30:21
  sort of situation. It's well, you know, his ERA in
• 30:23
  the months of like whatever his ERA in the month of July was
• 30:27
  7.35. That's not good.
• 30:28
  I mean, like, it's one of those things.
• 30:30
  So there's a balance there. For as much as you give people
• 30:34
  Flack, you have to also praise them when they're doing well
• 30:36
  well. But I also think you you
• 30:39
  understand from that perspective.
• 30:41
  And for me going through it, and I was a 19 year old kid that had
• 30:46
  my son. A year later, I'm in New York
• 30:50
  City. Yeah, my son literally did an
• 30:54
  interview for me. And the relationships that you
• 30:59
  create, because exactly what you said is get to know them on a
• 31:03
  human level. Because really, when it comes
• 31:06
  down to it, we all put our clothes on the same way, we
• 31:10
  shower the same way. We do the same thing, we just do
• 31:13
  it differently. And when you can relate to them
• 31:16
  and they trust you, when you talk shit about me, it's because
• 31:21
  I deserve it. My son literally came in and
• 31:24
  there was 30 of you in front of my locker.
• 31:27
  He goes, Dad, you couldn't throw your fastball for a strike.
• 31:30
  And I go, there is everything that I needed to tell you guys
• 31:34
  tonight. There you go.
• 31:37
  And they all and they all do. Like there's nothing more to
• 31:40
  even ask. Like, even though I'm getting
• 31:43
  asked different questions, that's the story.
• 31:45
  Yeah. But the human aspect of all the
• 31:48
  guys that I got to know and I think and, and you are amazing.
• 31:53
  You are great in the stories that you and I, I love now
• 31:57
  getting to hear the perspective that you come from of knowing it
• 32:00
  on a human level, because sometimes they all look at us as
• 32:04
  different. And like, that's my job.
• 32:07
  Well, it goes deeper than the job, like because I love the
• 32:11
  game, but also because I love the game.
• 32:16
  I have to love the people in the game and when you get that and
• 32:21
  why I'm still friends with these guys to this day is because they
• 32:26
  cared. They know I sucked and I was an
• 32:31
  open book. I sucked.
• 32:33
  I sucked. I'm going to tell you, I'm going
• 32:35
  to answer the bell every day, good and bad.
• 32:37
  But you hit the nail on the head when you get to know them on a
• 32:42
  human level and they get open up to you.
• 32:44
  And like you said, the one-on-one, that's when it's
• 32:47
  just like we're able to be able to do that and, and be
• 32:51
  accountable for what we suck at, what we're good at, good and
• 32:56
  bad. And I think that's great.
• 32:59
  And you're, you're doing a fantastic job.
• 33:00
  And it's, it's, it's an honor to have you on the show.
• 33:02
  And I appreciate everything you said because it's always, it's
• 33:07
  always funny and, and Brian hoax obviously on the show a bunch,
• 33:11
  but it's just, it's real. He he sent me beef jerky for
• 33:14
  Christmas. It was very Hoke like.
• 33:18
  Yeah. 100% love him. And so it, it, it's just, it's
• 33:23
  just refreshing to see because like you said, you're getting
• 33:28
  stories and people want to hear that, but the relationship is so
• 33:32
  much bigger than what people see and.
• 33:34
  There are going to be times when we suck too, like we are human.
• 33:38
  The one thing that I can only say, and that's like my parting
• 33:40
  thing is, and even to aspiring sports reporters out there, oh,
• 33:44
  if you write something bad about somebody and not even bad or
• 33:47
  critical, show up the next day, show your face, I think that's
• 33:50
  super duper important. And I feel that's starting to
• 33:52
  become a lost art. All right, Laura, I have one
• 33:55
  more question to ask you. It's like a two-part question.
• 33:58
  Obviously the we mentioned Kyle Tucker, let's say the Mets
• 34:02
  strike out on him. Do they go after Cody Bellinger
• 34:06
  one or do they wait until the season starts at the trade
• 34:11
  deadline where they can make a move?
• 34:12
  They can they could trade for another outfielder, bring in a
• 34:15
  bring up one of these younger guys that they have in their
• 34:17
  farm system. And my, my number two question,
• 34:21
  if that doesn't work, do they dig deep this offseason before
• 34:26
  the season starts? Pitchers and catchers, and they
• 34:28
  overpay for Tarek Scubal. All right, so to if if the.
• 34:32
  Not gonna happen. Relax.
• 34:34
  If no, Scubal's not gonna happen there.
• 34:36
  The Tigers are asking for the universe for Scubal like you'd
• 34:38
  have to. He's a free.
• 34:39
  Agent No, McLean is not a Met anymore if you're getting
• 34:43
  Scubal, And that's just the beginning of what's gonna
• 34:46
  happen. So I don't think they're gonna
• 34:48
  do that, especially for a rental because there's no way that
• 34:51
  Boris is gonna let him sign an extension before before the end
• 34:54
  of the season. So, you know, taking that out of
• 34:57
  the equation, no, pal, Tucker, you're going to be in trouble.
• 34:59
  You do need an outfielder. So they love the Carson bench
• 35:02
  kid. But again, unproven prospect
• 35:05
  Cody Bellinger is another issue because, you know, reportedly
• 35:08
  the Yankees already offered him five years, 30, one, $32 million
• 35:13
  and he actually wants to go to seven.
• 35:15
  I don't see a world where David Sterns commits to Cody Bellinger
• 35:18
  for seven years because right now his market, I think I'm very
• 35:21
  pro player. Players need to get paid, but
• 35:24
  just in the grand scheme of things, how it's projected, his
• 35:26
  market is inflated. I do think as a fit, he fits
• 35:29
  great because he also plays first base and they need a first
• 35:32
  baseman. I just don't know how realistic
• 35:34
  it is with as hard as the Yankees are going after
• 35:36
  Ballinger. After that you might you might
• 35:40
  have to start looking at stuff like, OK, hey, Harrison Vader,
• 35:44
  which great defensive outfielder and you know, you don't have a
• 35:49
  great defensive outfielder and Juan Soto.
• 35:51
  And then you have Tyrone Taylor. And then you just pray that
• 35:54
  Carson Benge is really good and further explore the trade market
• 35:58
  and see what's available. It's very interesting.
• 36:00
  I'm, I'm interested to see what the Mets are going to do with
• 36:03
  the Tucker move. I I do believe that the Cubs are
• 36:06
  going to land them. That's why they decided to go
• 36:08
  with Bregman. I think that was the draw to
• 36:11
  keep him over there with the Cubs.
• 36:12
  And I think that's where he's going to wind up signing $400
• 36:16
  million over there with the Cubs.
• 36:17
  And the Cubs are going to ride off into the sunset because
• 36:20
  they've had the best offseason, I believe, in the National
• 36:23
  League if they make that move. But thank you, Laura, for
• 36:26
  joining us. You're fantastic.
• 36:27
  Keep up the good work and we'll get you on before the season
• 36:30
  starts. Awesome.
• 36:32
  Thanks so much for having me fun guys.
• 36:33
  It was fun. Absolutely, Newsday Mets beat
• 36:37
  writer Laura Albanese. She was fantastic.
• 36:40
  I was my my thought here is, is the Kyle Tucker move.
• 36:44
  If the Mets fail to get Kyle Tucker, which more than likely
• 36:47
  is going to happen, I think he's using the Mets as like, what
• 36:51
  would you call that like a, a pull up trying to get that next
• 36:56
  range of money? And I think the Cubs are going
• 36:58
  to give him what he wants. I, I don't know if the Cubs are
• 37:01
  willing to give him that extra $100 million, which is going to
• 37:04
  make it because I think in my opinion, Kyle Tucker's between
• 37:08
  300 and 350 million. I don't think he's worth 400
• 37:11
  million. But I think the Cubs are going
• 37:13
  to have to reach now because now the Mets are going to offer him
• 37:16
  50 million a year, five years with an opt out clause, which is
• 37:20
  something that I believe Kyle Tucker is asking for.
• 37:24
  So it's going to be very interesting.
• 37:26
  And she says in the next 24 to 48 hours, it does not mean that
• 37:30
  Cody Bellinger might be off the board after that.
• 37:33
  Because as soon as Kyle Tucker goes, I believe Cody Bellinger.
• 37:36
  Well, it's, it's, it's the same thing we talked about though.
• 37:39
  It's Bregman set the market and we talked about age, we talked
• 37:43
  about years and he set the market for what it's going to
• 37:48
  be. And obviously Boris works
• 37:51
  different than Excel, works different than Varner with Boba
• 37:54
  Shet and all the other things, but it kind of set the market.
• 37:58
  ESP NS Adam Schefner reports that Tuesday that 19 year
• 38:02
  Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin is stepping down and will not
• 38:06
  return for his 20th season. Yahoo Sports reports that Mike
• 38:11
  Tomlin isn't planning on coaching during the 2026 season
• 38:16
  and since he resigned instead of being fired, the Steelers will
• 38:21
  retain Tomlin right rights, forcing A-Team to trade for him
• 38:26
  if they want him as their head coach for the future.
• 38:30
  Tomlin is likely to take a high profile broadcasting job this
• 38:33
  season and has offers from 4 different networks already.
• 38:38
  Reports say that Steelers owner Art Rooney wanted to keep Tomlin
• 38:44
  in 2026 for the season, but admitted he wasn't shocked when
• 38:50
  he decided to step down. With the Steelers loss to this
• 38:53
  text to the Texans, Tomlin also tied Marvin Lewis for the most
• 38:58
  consecutive playoff losses for a coach, having lost seven
• 39:02
  straight playoff games and not winning a playoff game since
• 39:07
  2016. Despite the failures in the
• 39:11
  postseason this past decade, Tomlin never had a losing
• 39:16
  season. In his 19 year tenure, Tomlin
• 39:19
  finishes a with a record of 193 and 114 and 2A playoff record of
• 39:26
  8 and 12 and winning Super Bowl 43.
• 39:30
  Since the AFL and NFL merger, Tomlin is just the third head
• 39:36
  coach the Steelers have had alongside Chuck Noll and Bill
• 39:41
  Cower. Now, no, no other team has ever
• 39:45
  had fewer than 10 coaches over that time.
• 39:50
  I will say this, Mike Tomlin is one of the best coaches in the
• 39:54
  NFL. There's no question that he has
• 39:56
  regular season coaches as far as the playoffs are concerned.
• 40:00
  He hasn't really had a good career in that sector.
• 40:04
  Now, maybe it's because of Ben Roethlisberger.
• 40:06
  Ben Roethlisberger was at the tail end of his career.
• 40:09
  He was always hurt. He was never healthy.
• 40:12
  And I think that definitely affected the Steelers and, and
• 40:15
  really. What they did with that second
• 40:18
  tier team when they lost some of their star players like Palamalu
• 40:22
  and James Harrison, I that that everything started falling off
• 40:27
  for the the Pittsburgh Steelers and I and again, the fact here
• 40:32
  is Mike Tomlin has had a long career with the Pittsburgh
• 40:37
  Steelers. There's no doubt he he doesn't
• 40:40
  need to do anything more for a franchise than what he has done
• 40:44
  for the Pittsburgh Steelers. But if you look at this
• 40:46
  offseason and you look at the coaches that have been let go
• 40:50
  of, walked or resigned, you look at John Harbaugh, 18 years, 1718
• 40:56
  years with the the Baltimore Ravens, Kevin Stefanski who won
• 41:00
  two coach of the years in in a five year stint, another guy
• 41:05
  that got let go, Brian Dabel. If you look at some of these
• 41:08
  coaches that were let go or resigned, this might be the
• 41:12
  biggest offseason we've seen when it comes to coaches being
• 41:16
  available. Mike McCarthy still available.
• 41:19
  There is so much talent out there when it comes to veteran
• 41:22
  coaches and that's what you're looking for.
• 41:24
  When you look at some of these teams that haven't been
• 41:26
  successful over the years, the New York Giants, the Miami
• 41:29
  Dolphins, the New York Jets, we could go on and on and on.
• 41:33
  You look at these organizations, they're looking for that veteran
• 41:35
  coach that can get them over the hump.
• 41:37
  There are a dozen of them that are available right now.
• 41:41
  And, and you talk about some of the young guys that are going to
• 41:43
  be available after the season's end.
• 41:45
  You you talk about the defensive coordinator right now.
• 41:48
  What's his last name on, on the Chargers?
• 41:50
  Minter Minter. Minter is going to be a guy that
• 41:53
  is going to be interviewed. You have all these guys.
• 41:55
  Shula is another one that is going to his father was a was a
• 42:00
  great coach in the NFL. There's a lot of great, talented
• 42:04
  offensive and defensive corner still available.
• 42:07
  But when you look at a franchise, you're looking for
• 42:09
  that veteran guy. What are the Pittsburgh Steelers
• 42:11
  going to do now? You lose Mike Tomlin, what are
• 42:14
  the Ravens going to do? You lose John Harbaugh, you're,
• 42:17
  you're going to bring in either a rookie, a guy that's never
• 42:20
  been in this position before, or somebody that's been a part of
• 42:23
  that organization for a significant amount of time.
• 42:26
  That doesn't bode well. Now, John Harbaugh never had a
• 42:29
  coaching experience when he took over for the Ravens, when
• 42:32
  obviously the the step down of Brian Billick.
• 42:36
  Brian Billick, who won a Super Bowl in 2000 with the Ravens
• 42:40
  with, with all those great talented players that he's had,
• 42:43
  when he took over that team, he was a special teams coach.
• 42:47
  And then you look at Mike Tomlin, he's another guy,
• 42:48
  special teams coach that took over for a Coward, who is a
• 42:53
  great head coach who won a Super Bowl and then decided to step,
• 42:57
  step down after drafting a guy like Ben Roethlisberger.
• 43:00
  Remember Ben Roethlisberger at the time when Coward stepped
• 43:03
  down, was only in the league for like two or three years.
• 43:06
  So he wasn't there that long when Coward decided to step away
• 43:10
  from the game. So and and never took another
• 43:13
  job after that. You you think about Mike Tomlin,
• 43:15
  Mike Tomlin doesn't need a coach anymore.
• 43:18
  That's what I'm trying to get at.
• 43:19
  He could be like a Coward and you could say, you know what, I
• 43:22
  could be a a successful broadcaster, a successful
• 43:25
  analyst and be a football guy and never have to travel, not
• 43:29
  have to deal with what I was dealing with for 1819 years.
• 43:32
  Look at the guys that he had to deal with, Le'veon Bell, Ben
• 43:35
  Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown, Juju Smith, Schuster.
• 43:40
  Look at all these guys that he had to deal with the Tik Toks
• 43:43
  and Instagrams and all the stupid things that Antonio Brown
• 43:47
  was doing on and off the field. Ben Roethlisberger was doing on
• 43:50
  and off the field that he got away with.
• 43:52
  People forget riding his motorcycle and all the other
• 43:54
  stuff that he was doing at the bars.
• 43:57
  So you think about Mike Tomlin, there are a lot of ups and downs
• 44:01
  in his career as a head coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers, But
• 44:04
  one thing I could say about Mike Tomlin, he was a likable person.
• 44:07
  Every single player that's ever been coached by him said he was
• 44:10
  a great, great leader, great coach, great man, great father
• 44:14
  figure. And, and that's the, the one
• 44:16
  thing that I could say and I could pinpoint on the things
• 44:19
  that I didn't like about a guy like Mike Tomlin is he couldn't
• 44:22
  develop a quarterback. Think about it, Kenny Pickett,
• 44:25
  they brought him to the team, brought him to the team a couple
• 44:27
  of years ago. Failed you, you, you talk about
• 44:30
  all these different guys that they've drafted over the years
• 44:33
  that have failed second round picks, third round picks, first
• 44:36
  round picks. He couldn't develop a
• 44:38
  quarterback. And I'm not saying it's easy to
• 44:40
  develop a quarterback, but you talk about franchises that
• 44:43
  couldn't do it, Miami, The Jets, all failures of organizations.
• 44:48
  The Giants haven't really developed the quarterback since
• 44:51
  Eli Manning. Now you, you think that Jackson
• 44:53
  darts the guy. So there's a lot of guessing at
• 44:56
  that when it when you when it comes to the quarterback
• 44:58
  position. But Mike Tomlin is going to be
• 45:00
  looked at not because of his wins and loss record.
• 45:03
  It's his playoffs. It's his failure to win in the
• 45:06
  playoffs besides the Super Bowl that he won and it wasn't his
• 45:09
  team. It was honestly that was Bill
• 45:12
  Coward's team. He took over for Bill Coward and
• 45:15
  within what was it, 2-3 years, he wins the Super Bowl.
• 45:18
  That does that just doesn't happen.
• 45:20
  And since then, he's never won. He's never been to a Super Bowl
• 45:25
  since then. There's there was they were OO9.
• 45:30
  They were the Yeah O 708-0809 season.
• 45:33
  What was that year? It was the year after the Giants
• 45:35
  beat the Patriots. Again, you look at the
• 45:38
  organization as a whole and you look at Aunt Rooney.
• 45:41
  Where does Aunt Rooney go here? Does he bring in a veteran guy?
• 45:44
  Does he sign? Bring in a Mike McCarthy.
• 45:47
  Does he bring in a Kevin Stefanski now?
• 45:49
  I think right now with Mike Tomlin stepping down, they were
• 45:52
  rating the teams and where they were rating on ESPN.
• 45:55
  And by the way, I I can't stand Stephen A Smith because I don't
• 45:58
  want to ask him what he thinks from top to bottom, who the best
• 46:02
  team is to the worst team. We all know he roots for the
• 46:04
  Giants. So we put the Giants number 2
• 46:07
  when it comes to pure talent. It would go in my in my honest
• 46:11
  opinion, I would say the Atlanta Falcons, then I would say the
• 46:15
  Pittsburgh Steelers, then I'd say the Baltimore Ravens, then
• 46:18
  I'd say the New York Giants, and then and so on and so on.
• 46:21
  Arizona and Arizona would probably be a little bit under
• 46:24
  the New York Giants. Some people would put them over
• 46:26
  the Yeah, I would. Just say that's a toss up.
• 46:28
  Yeah, so the. Yeah, But do do you think like
• 46:31
  when they when he stepped down, do you think it was more like to
• 46:37
  to save face that they didn't fire him?
• 46:40
  They. Weren't going to.
• 46:41
  Though no they weren't I I do not believe they had any
• 46:44
  interest in fire. They're going to hold his rights
• 46:46
  anyways because they're going to get something out.
• 46:48
  Of the the other reason Java. Is it's the Sean Payton thing
• 46:52
  when he went to the Broncos? Yeah, but guess what?
• 46:54
  He's only under contract for another year.
• 46:57
  Oh, it's only a year. It's only another.
• 46:59
  Year all they said was the 2026 season.
• 47:01
  Yes and I think the only reason he would have been fired Jabba
• 47:04
  is if they actually did sell the team like they rumored 2 in the
• 47:07
  offseason but they never did. As long as the Rooneys are
• 47:10
  there, I don't think they were ever going to fire.
• 47:11
  Him. I think that's the reason why
• 47:12
  Tomlin is going to step down this year and sit out for the
• 47:15
  season. He doesn't want to be
• 47:16
  controlled. He doesn't want to be, oh, we're
• 47:18
  going to trade you here and you got to coach this team.
• 47:20
  He doesn't want to deal with that.
• 47:22
  He also doesn't want to be a coach that obviously gets traded
• 47:25
  and then decides, you know what, I don't want to, I don't want to
• 47:28
  coach this team. Just like Bill Belichick did
• 47:30
  within 24 hours with the New York Jets, stepped down with The
• 47:33
  Jets and went to the the Patriots.
• 47:35
  He doesn't want to do something like that.
• 47:37
  Mike Tomlin doesn't have that kind of personality.
• 47:39
  I think Mike Tomlin really realizes now he has a career in
• 47:43
  broadcasting. If he wants to step away from
• 47:46
  it, remember what he was dealing with in in Pittsburgh was
• 47:49
  craziness year in and year out. Some of the the personalities.
• 47:52
  Look at George Pickens, you know, I mean, dealing with him
• 47:56
  the way he had to deal with him the time that he was there.
• 47:59
  And then DK Metcalf on some of the things that happened at the
• 48:02
  end of the season that he was dealing with that.
• 48:04
  I think they kind of blocked out what was really going on in that
• 48:07
  locker room and what he was doing with some of the things
• 48:10
  that DK Metcalf was doing on and off the field.
• 48:13
  I mean, there's a lot of things that he was dealing with.
• 48:16
  He took on a big response, taking all these different
• 48:19
  personalities and a lot of unique personalities he had to
• 48:22
  deal with over there in Pittsburgh and have to deal with
• 48:25
  it with ease. So I would give him credit for
• 48:28
  that. What I won't give him credit for
• 48:30
  is the development of the most important position in
• 48:33
  professional sports and that's the quarterback position.
• 48:36
  Everybody wants to make fun of this coach and that coach and
• 48:39
  and this coach and that coach. Hey, guess what?
• 48:41
  He was the one that wanted Kenny Pickett.
• 48:43
  He was the one that said Kenny Pickett look great when he
• 48:46
  watched him play for Pitt. He also was the one that said
• 48:49
  this guy could be a franchise quarterback for us for the next
• 48:52
  15 years. How long did it take him to
• 48:54
  realize that Kenny Pickett wasn't the guy?
• 48:57
  Too long, and that's the problem.
• 48:59
  When you look at some of the instances of the Steelers losing
• 49:02
  their best players, you talk about Paula Malu and Harrison
• 49:04
  and guys like that. Look at the core of that
• 49:06
  defense. Really, they had trouble finding
• 49:08
  and drafting and developing corners, which is a key position
• 49:11
  in today's game, especially with more spread offense.
• 49:13
  Porter's been pretty good. Porter's been good.
• 49:15
  But I, I would say in the last Patrick, I would say, well, he,
• 49:18
  he's a hybrid. I would say he and he was also a
• 49:20
  trait too I'm talking about. Yeah, but he he still helped
• 49:22
  develop. Drafting and developing.
• 49:23
  Better with Pittsburgh. Sure.
• 49:25
  And I I just think in general, there's just not enough
• 49:27
  consistency with that on the defense.
• 49:29
  And this is a guy that Mike Tomlin that he came from the
• 49:31
  defensive side and I think parts of the stretches, even though
• 49:34
  you're right, he was good at stabilizing the culture there
• 49:36
  and he was still good at being competitive.
• 49:38
  And what has been a very difficult division outside of
• 49:40
  the Browns, all the all the other teams have been
• 49:41
  competitive for good stretches of time.
• 49:44
  The other thing that I think he refused to evolve a little
• 49:47
  quicker. And that's why you saw Bill
• 49:48
  Belichick really carve him up in playoff games.
• 49:50
  A lot of the time. You saw the Ravens even destroy
• 49:53
  them. Besides the first year with
• 49:54
  Flacco and Harbaugh there, when the Steelers be in the AFC
• 49:56
  Championship, you saw them carve them up in playoff games and big
• 49:59
  time playoff games too. Now, I will give him credit for
• 50:02
  the fact that I think he's evolved with different types of
• 50:04
  players recently to that I talked to you on the phone,
• 50:06
  Errol, a few days ago about. That's why I think he could
• 50:09
  probably be more evolving to the modern game than Harbaugh would
• 50:12
  be. Even though I think Harbaugh did
• 50:15
  some things with Lamar Jackson, I think there was more Ozzie
• 50:17
  Newsome than it went. But you knew the writing was on
• 50:20
  the wall when Ben Roethlisberger came out before the season ended
• 50:23
  on his podcast and said that he thinks he should go to college
• 50:26
  football. He said Ben Roethlisberger said
• 50:29
  that he should go and coach. I think what Tomlin is great at
• 50:33
  and why I think Roethlisberger probably said that was because
• 50:37
  he's a culture guy. He's a culture guy.
• 50:40
  Like he gets with the culture. He understands people in the way
• 50:44
  they move and shake. Why he got a Pickens, why he
• 50:48
  dealt with AB and in his stuff and why he was so good at that.
• 50:53
  When you bring up like Tik Toks and all the other stuff and why
• 50:56
  I think Ben said that is because yes, he did he not do a great
• 51:01
  job of developing based upon the fact that he never won after O 9
• 51:08
  is because he's a culture guy. And so when you go into that
• 51:12
  college realm and like where I think he would be a great fit is
• 51:18
  because he gets that and he understands it.
• 51:22
  I'd. Be afraid.
• 51:23
  I'd be afraid. I'd step away if I was any, you
• 51:27
  know, school or I was any program.
• 51:30
  And I'm looking at Mike Tomlin, who's never had any experience
• 51:33
  as a head coach or even assistant coach for college
• 51:36
  football. I would worry to take on a
• 51:39
  responsibility like the landscape.
• 51:41
  Of college football has changed. You have GM's that are are
• 51:44
  basically running the so he can he can be that piece of the
• 51:49
  puzzle and run the culture and be like, hey guys, this is what
• 51:54
  we're doing. Like you've seen all these
• 51:56
  coaches in college adapt to different things like Matt rule
• 52:00
  never did anything social media. Now he's got a podcast.
• 52:03
  Now he's on McAfee now he's on. So they they adhere to what?
• 52:08
  And I think he just. Did a great job.
• 52:11
  He took over a job at 34 years old, a very young man.
• 52:16
  He's been there for 19 years now.
• 52:19
  He's in his 50s. OK, would you decide, hey, you
• 52:23
  know what? I'm going to completely change
• 52:26
  my whole outlook to what I was as a head coach.
• 52:28
  And I felt you have to, you have to evolve.
• 52:31
  He's too. Old.
• 52:31
  He's too old to do that. I, I wouldn't, you know that
• 52:34
  that's that you're looking at Bill Belichick.
• 52:37
  Bill Belichick only did that because of his father.
• 52:40
  He only took that responsibility.
• 52:42
  But at the same time, he's still evolving the aspect that he's
• 52:45
  letting his girlfriend or whatever.
• 52:47
  They are, and he's failing and he's making himself look like a
• 52:50
  complete. Ass, yeah, and that's OK, but
• 52:54
  I'm just like, is it? You have, you've looked at as
• 52:58
  the greatest coach of all time, Bill Belichick, the greatest
• 53:01
  mind the NFL has ever seen, and you decided, hey, you know what?
• 53:06
  I didn't get the Atlanta Falcon job.
• 53:08
  I'm going to college. I'm going to coach North
• 53:11
  Carolina and I'm going to recruit players.
• 53:13
  I'm going to figure out what the NIL deal is all about.
• 53:16
  And I'm going to bring my sexy girlfriend who's 24 years old,
• 53:20
  running up and down the sidelines acting like a complete
• 53:23
  ass. And it's going to work.
• 53:25
  It's absolutely, absolutely going to work.
• 53:27
  It hasn't worked. As a matter of fact, if I was an
• 53:30
  organization right now with the NFL, as good as Bill Belichick
• 53:33
  is and one of the greatest of all time, I'm staying far, far
• 53:37
  away from Bill Belichick after seeing what I have to deal with
• 53:40
  in North Carolina. And also you're dealing with a
• 53:42
  larger sample too. Jabba, he hasn't only coached
• 53:44
  the one year so far and which was drama filled because of his
• 53:46
  girlfriend and stuff like that too.
• 53:47
  So I don't know what kind of sample you're judging of a long
• 53:50
  time NFL coach going in. It's different with somebody
• 53:52
  like Saban, only coach in the. NFL I'm staying far, far, far
• 53:55
  away. If I'm Mike Tomlin from college
• 53:56
  football, far, far away, I I'll. Be it's going to be on TV.
• 54:00
  Yes, I'll be an analyst before I I even think to go coach college
• 54:05
  football to deal with recruiting players and all that garbage.
• 54:08
  I if I was my Tom and I'd stay far, far away from.
• 54:11
  That the last eight years he's had no quarterback he's had
• 54:16
  declining Roethlisberger. I'd say the third to last year
• 54:18
  of Roethlisberger's career, he was still good, but he had two
• 54:21
  crap years of Roethlisberger and then the Kenny Pickett Pooh Pooh
• 54:24
  platter along the way with the 41 year old Aaron Rodgers.
• 54:28
  That roster is terrible. Errol, they had TJ Watt had a
• 54:31
  punctured lung and they had Patrick Queen.
• 54:33
  They had like one good offensive lineman and McCormick and Joey
• 54:36
  Porter's good, right? But that's not a lights out
• 54:40
  defense. And DK Metcalf, you know, he has
• 54:42
  his troubles. Rodgers not the same player as
• 54:45
  was it his height? I think he overachieved Tomlin
• 54:49
  for the last eight years. Getting to the playoffs with
• 54:52
  some of these crap rosters is is an unbelievable feat.
• 54:55
  If Aaron Glenn or Brian Dabel had this Steelers team, it would
• 54:59
  be a top five pick just like the two team those two.
• 55:01
  It would be a winless year. I'm telling you, that's a bad
• 55:04
  roster. He was able to, you know, with
• 55:07
  the culture, with all those things to get them playing
• 55:10
  together, and I think it wore him out.
• 55:11
  The guy deserves a break. He absolutely does.
• 55:15
  He had one of the hardest jobs in football with the least
• 55:18
  talent. He did more with less than I
• 55:21
  would say 99% of. You want to hear something funny
• 55:23
  when we talk about the three coaches that have been there,
• 55:27
  Chuck Knoll and Bill Coward, Every single one of them.
• 55:30
  After they left the Pittsburgh Steelers, they retired from
• 55:33
  coaching. Yes, every single one of them.
• 55:35
  Every single one of them. And I wouldn't be surprised.
• 55:38
  But we we've also seen them leave and get bigger contracts
• 55:43
  being broadcasters on TV. Well, I, I, well, first of all,
• 55:48
  I don't know what Chuck no got, but I know Bill Coward got a big
• 55:52
  contract with CBS and he's very much loved at CBS.
• 55:55
  He's the one guy that they've kept over the last 15 years out
• 55:59
  of all the guys that they keep transitioning.
• 56:01
  So I, I think Bill Coward took very likable person.
• 56:05
  I, I don't think Mike Tomlin's the same personality.
• 56:08
  I think Mike Tomlin's a likable person and I, I think he's a
• 56:12
  lifer. And that's why I think he's
• 56:13
  going to take another coaching job.
• 56:15
  I just think he doesn't want to go to a team where Pittsburgh's
• 56:19
  going to trade him to. And he's going to have to, hey,
• 56:21
  I'm going to have to do it because that's something that
• 56:23
  Mike Tomlin will do. He will take the job on if he
• 56:26
  says that he'll be willing to be traded.
• 56:28
  I think Mike Tomlin, if he got traded to Arizona, he'll take
• 56:31
  the responsibility on. That's the type of person he is.
• 56:34
  I don't think he wants to do that.
• 56:35
  I think he wants to wait until next offseason where he can
• 56:38
  choose where he wants to go. Yeah, it's it's definitely not
• 56:42
  right now. Take the time off, get on TV.
• 56:44
  He's going to take that Jimmie Johnson slot.
• 56:46
  He's retiring from the Fox Show. That's the one that I'm hearing
• 56:49
  right now. That is most likely for him.
• 56:53
  I'm sure he'll be good. You know, it's just first year
• 56:55
  doing it as just like anybody, you get better the more you do
• 56:58
  something. But I'd like to hear what he has
• 57:00
  to say. You know, after so many years
• 57:02
  of, you know, playing it close to the vest, I I want to hear
• 57:05
  his opinions. I want to hear what a great
• 57:08
  coach in the modern era, because all the guys we hear they're old
• 57:11
  time guys now. Like the game has changed so
• 57:13
  much from when they were coaching.
• 57:15
  Remember Tony Romo that first year he came into the broadcast
• 57:18
  booth, he still knew all the players in the league.
• 57:19
  And now he doesn't research anything and don't care no more.
• 57:22
  That's kind of like, and then he's not as good.
• 57:24
  People are really upset at him. They're talking about demoting,
• 57:26
  you know, Nance and Romo to be the number two team.
• 57:29
  It's not going to happen because of Nance and the CBS forever.
• 57:31
  Because of the money they're getting too.
• 57:33
  And the money, but they're they're not good anymore.
• 57:35
  Like they weren't good, but Romo was really good when he was
• 57:38
  involved in and Tomlin's still got the league on his mind.
• 57:41
  Like he'll know, at least for the first few years that who
• 57:44
  who's really good and who what coaches do what.
• 57:47
  And I can't wait to hear stuff like that.
• 57:48
  He's going to give us great insight.
• 57:49
  I, I don't know how good he's going to be.
• 57:52
  You know, when it comes to working and dealing with
• 57:55
  personalities at a table, you know, you, you look at
• 57:57
  Gronkowski, he's a great personality on a football field.
• 58:00
  When he speaks, he speaks like an idiot.
• 58:02
  I don't want to hear Rob Gronkowski and his, his, his
• 58:05
  thoughts on the play or or quarterback play in the NFL
• 58:10
  right now because every time I heard it, I laughed.
• 58:13
  I I don't want to hear what he's got.
• 58:14
  To say that's kind of Jason Whitten, too.
• 58:16
  Remember Jason Whitten? He wouldn't win the booth.
• 58:18
  They're all bad, man. They're all bad.
• 58:20
  I mean, Julian Edelman, I love you.
• 58:22
  But Julian, I, I think you're a funny guy.
• 58:25
  You really are. But your podcast is one of the
• 58:27
  most ridiculous podcasts I've ever heard before in my entire
• 58:31
  life. And I understand he's got a good
• 58:33
  relationship with Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski gets all these
• 58:36
  different guests on his show, ex NFL players.
• 58:39
  That's great. And I want to hear what they got
• 58:41
  us. I don't want to hear Julian
• 58:42
  Edelman. And now he's signed with Fox
• 58:43
  because his best buddy Tom Brady's there and Rob
• 58:47
  Gronkowski's there. Who's next?
• 58:49
  Oh, let's bring in Vince Wilfork.
• 58:51
  Hey, if Bill Belichick gets fired from North Carolina, let's
• 58:54
  bring him to the dinner table. Let's get all four of them at
• 58:57
  the front lines of Fox Sports. I don't want to hear these guys.
• 59:02
  I want to hear guys that are actually know the game as a
• 59:06
  broadcaster, not as a player. Cuz really in the ends of
• 59:11
  understanding the game of football, they know more than we
• 59:13
  do. But when it comes to bringing
• 59:15
  out a personality and understanding it in a
• 59:19
  personality type of way, I don't want to hear them cuz they're
• 59:23
  not funny. They're stupid and dumb.
• 59:26
  And I, I just, I'm afraid to see what Mike Tomlin is going to be
• 59:30
  between these guys and the, you know, Michael Strahan and Rob
• 59:35
  Gronkowski. And I don't know any one of
• 59:38
  these guys. I, I don't know who's the other
• 59:40
  one. Terry Bradshaw.
• 59:41
  Terry Bradshaw, you know, I don't know how this is going to
• 59:44
  work. I love Jimmie Johnson because
• 59:46
  you know what Jimmie Johnson used to do?
• 59:48
  He used to tan. He used to smile.
• 59:50
  They asked him a couple of questions and he got paid.
• 59:53
  Mike Tomlin's not that type of guy.
• 59:55
  He's not going to sit there and say, go ahead, pay me.
• 59:58
  Mike Tomlin speaks. And he has a personality and
• 1:00:02
  he's going to say what he feels and he's going to, you see what
• 1:00:05
  he's done to some of the players.
• 1:00:07
  He called his players out on, you know, on media day.
• 1:00:11
  He called his players out before the season started by the lack
• 1:00:14
  of play that they were doing in a preseason game.
• 1:00:17
  So we know what Mike Tomlin is all about.
• 1:00:20
  So I don't know how this is going to work when they tell him
• 1:00:22
  to zipper his mouth and he's not going to zipper it.
• 1:00:25
  All right, ladies and gentlemen, fishes Play of the week.
• 1:00:28
  This is great about sports. You play to win in the game.
• 1:00:31
  Hello. You play to win the game.
• 1:00:35
  Fishes play of the win win. All right guys, welcome back to
• 1:00:39
  Fishes Play of the Week. I got a great one for you.
• 1:00:43
  We mentioned it a little bit earlier tonight.
• 1:00:46
  There's a great name for this play, the one that beat, you
• 1:00:50
  know, Errol's beloved second favorite team, the Eagles.
• 1:00:53
  You know, I personally, you know, it was just made me so sad
• 1:00:57
  to see the Eagles be so uninventive offensively and then
• 1:01:01
  lose against a trick play. I blame I.
• 1:01:03
  Think we need to see it. What a beautiful play.
• 1:01:07
  Listen, they they beat a couple of all pro defenders on this
• 1:01:10
  play, right? Quinjan Mitchell and Cooper
• 1:01:12
  Digena, first team all pros. Here's the play.
• 1:01:15
  They call this Sky Bang Reverse Pass.
• 1:01:18
  Let's take a look. CMC looks like a pretty easy
• 1:01:21
  touchdown. We got to go back and see why.
• 1:01:24
  So we're going to start off with this formation.
• 1:01:26
  We're motioning the slot receiver across.
• 1:01:29
  I would have been pissed off if I was the Eagles because this
• 1:01:31
  looks like an illegal formation. Notice the tight end, Tungus
• 1:01:34
  over here. He looks like he's sort of on
• 1:01:36
  the ball, but not on the ball. And then you have the receiver
• 1:01:39
  on the line on the outside, so he's supposed to be off the
• 1:01:42
  ball. He looks even with that tackle.
• 1:01:44
  I would have said that's an illegal formation and lost my
• 1:01:46
  mind on the sideline if I was an Eagles coach on this one.
• 1:01:49
  Yeah, they didn't argue. It sucks to be you, Eagles.
• 1:01:52
  Now take a look at what's going to happen.
• 1:01:54
  So you go back from this. We call this a rebound motion.
• 1:01:57
  He runs one way and then come backs the other way.
• 1:01:59
  And this is a traditional jet sweep play.
• 1:02:02
  This is something they do in high school.
• 1:02:03
  This is from an old Wing T type of an offense, but it's not a
• 1:02:07
  regular jet sweep. This is Mike Shanahan.
• 1:02:08
  They're doing the outside zone scheme here.
• 1:02:10
  They're pulling the guard to do what they call a pin pole block
• 1:02:14
  to kick out that edge rusher so that guy can't get his hands and
• 1:02:18
  mess up this really cool exchange that you never see.
• 1:02:21
  This is a jet sweep reverse to a receiver on an orbit motion
• 1:02:26
  which goes behind the running back and the running back runs
• 1:02:29
  out in the wheel. You see right here, Cooper Jean
• 1:02:31
  knows he's screwed. He did not stay with the running
• 1:02:35
  back. He bit up on the receiver
• 1:02:37
  running the reverse and it's over right here.
• 1:02:40
  He cannot catch up. He was flat footed and he gets a
• 1:02:43
  touchdown open by 5 yards and it was enough to put them ahead.
• 1:02:47
  They got came back. But this game, if they don't
• 1:02:50
  have this play, Eagles win this game, man.
• 1:02:52
  And that's why sky bang reverse. Oh wait, I got a couple more
• 1:02:56
  things. This was run, run three times by
• 1:02:59
  Shanahan in San Francisco. They used to call it the Debo
• 1:03:02
  bang reverse pass. They did it with Debo and I
• 1:03:05
  think they scored a touchdown about 8 to 10 years ago or
• 1:03:08
  whenever he first got the job when Emmanuel Sanders was there
• 1:03:12
  and he threw it to routine monster 2019.
• 1:03:14
  So 7 years ago. They should have known this was
• 1:03:18
  in the playbook, I think. I think everybody.
• 1:03:22
  I think everybody was shocked. As a matter of fact, you should
• 1:03:24
  have saw, you should have saw the coaching staff on the
• 1:03:27
  sideline from the Eagles after they, they, they collide, they,
• 1:03:31
  they landed the play and CMC got that touchdown, I mean.
• 1:03:34
  I'm telling you this is a legal formation though.
• 1:03:37
  This should have been a legal formation.
• 1:03:39
  That tight end should have been more off the ball.
• 1:03:41
  I, I, I really would have lost my mind as an eagles coach
• 1:03:45
  because what that happens, and you mentioned that earlier,
• 1:03:47
  Errol, when without Kittle, they're going to have to do more
• 1:03:49
  of those tackle looks out there. You call that AI used to call
• 1:03:52
  that a tank or an extra tackle formation.
• 1:03:55
  But if you have a tackle out there, you're not bringing the
• 1:03:57
  safety down to cover the tackle. So it's not the same defense
• 1:04:00
  that would go against that if Kittle was there.
• 1:04:03
  So on this one, because he's kind of you can't really tell if
• 1:04:05
  he's covered up or not because if he's on the line, he can't go
• 1:04:08
  out for a pass. So you don't need to cover him.
• 1:04:10
  So that's kind of playing fair a little bit by Shanahan.
• 1:04:14
  I think there is no mistake that he was like barely behind the
• 1:04:17
  tackle in this formation. Shanahan's a dirty man.
• 1:04:21
  That guy has some great. Points.
• 1:04:22
  Hey, listen, it closed and it was sealed and they sealed the
• 1:04:26
  deal then knock off the Eagles and I was very upset about it.
• 1:04:28
  I think a lot of people that I'm not even saying Eagle fans,
• 1:04:32
  people that were betting people lost a lot of money on this and
• 1:04:36
  and and by the way, if you bet on the 49ers, you want a lot of
• 1:04:38
  money. So I mean, because they were not
• 1:04:40
  the favorites, so. It was just it was just an
• 1:04:43
  unbelievable play. If you bet on them, great job.
• 1:04:45
  And it was this play that really brought them that victory and it
• 1:04:48
  that's why it's vicious. Play the league.
• 1:04:52
  Watch how I eat my string cheese.
• 1:04:54
  Anyways, there you go, ladies and gentlemen, we call this
• 1:04:58
  Let's Parlay. It's time for Les Farling.
• 1:05:13
  All right, ladies and gentlemen, we have Worldwide West and the
• 1:05:17
  one we call Reno in the feed. And if you don't know how to
• 1:05:22
  play the game, it's very simple. If you're a handicap woman or
• 1:05:25
  man, you should be listening to the you should be listening to
• 1:05:28
  the segment because these guys give you some of the best
• 1:05:32
  winning handicap picks in the business.
• 1:05:35
  So this is how we're going to play.
• 1:05:37
  Both Wes and Reno Johnny are going to give you their top
• 1:05:40
  three picks of the week and then they're going to give you their
• 1:05:42
  4th, which is a parlay pick. Are you boys ready?
• 1:05:47
  Yeah, yeah, I'm ready. All right, so we're going to go
• 1:05:49
  Reno Johnny first, Worldwide W 2nd.
• 1:05:53
  Here we go. Whale It was a rough week, let's
• 1:05:58
  put it that way. We are.
• 1:05:59
  We're bouncing back this week. My first play of the game of the
• 1:06:03
  of the week is actually going to be the Chicago Bears on Sunday
• 1:06:07
  night or Sunday afternoon football.
• 1:06:09
  It's quite simple for me, I think.
• 1:06:11
  I think the weather is going to play a factor.
• 1:06:13
  There shouldn't be a whole lot of precipitation.
• 1:06:16
  Looks like 15% chance on snow, but it's going to be damn cold.
• 1:06:20
  It's going to be 16°. They're playing the later game,
• 1:06:23
  so it's just going to get a little bit colder as they go
• 1:06:25
  through the night. You're looking at Matt Stafford,
• 1:06:28
  who I have a ton of respect for, but he played in Texas, went to
• 1:06:32
  Georgia and played in domes his whole career.
• 1:06:34
  This weather is absolutely going to be a factor.
• 1:06:36
  I do think it's going to it's going to translate on the field
• 1:06:39
  and I love the fact that the Bears are catching points on
• 1:06:43
  their home field in a 16° game against a team that plays in
• 1:06:50
  domes. I think it's just going to it's
• 1:06:52
  going to be a game that they're just going to be a little bit
• 1:06:55
  fatigued come late in that game. I think the Bears offense is is
• 1:06:59
  definitely a a a a a next factor in this game.
• 1:07:03
  Gimme Ki. Never thought I'd say this.
• 1:07:05
  I never thought a million years I would say this.
• 1:07:07
  Gimme Caleb Boys +4 at home Saturday Night Football.
• 1:07:12
  All right, Wes, give us your first pick of the week.
• 1:07:15
  I'm, I'm going to start with a college hoops game and this one
• 1:07:17
  is, this one's a layup. This is tomorrow night and I'm
• 1:07:22
  going to, I'm going to lay a point and a half taking Delaware
• 1:07:25
  over UTEP. UTEP hasn't won a game on the
• 1:07:28
  road this year and their game, their game is kind of predicated
• 1:07:33
  on steals taking the ball away. And Delaware's not a team that
• 1:07:37
  gives the ball away. If you want to shift over to
• 1:07:40
  line movement, for whatever that's worth, 77% of the tickets
• 1:07:44
  are on UTEP and the line started at 1 1/2 and it hasn't moved
• 1:07:50
  with that kind of that that kind of ticket volume on one side,
• 1:07:53
  probably a lower volume game. That line should move and it's
• 1:07:56
  not. Vegas is holding strong.
• 1:07:58
  I realized Delaware's only won five games this year, but I
• 1:08:01
  think they're going to win tomorrow probably by 7-8.
• 1:08:04
  So easy layup of a hoops game. You can't get it unless you have
• 1:08:08
  an app subscription of some sort.
• 1:08:11
  But it's college hoops time of the year.
• 1:08:13
  And I'm, I'm actually having a lot of fun betting it and
• 1:08:15
  watching it And you know, I've catched 5 tickets out of seven
• 1:08:18
  today. All right, Reno, Johnny, give us
• 1:08:21
  your number 2. We're sick and in the NFL here.
• 1:08:24
  I think it's pretty simple for me.
• 1:08:26
  I've said it from the beginning, I have a preseason ticket on the
• 1:08:29
  Bills. Got a couple of them.
• 1:08:31
  Now I got a parlay piece. It's still alive on a preseason
• 1:08:34
  future on the Bills. They're even money.
• 1:08:38
  Give me the Bills. I don't care about anything
• 1:08:40
  metric wise in this game. I'm riding with what I said at
• 1:08:43
  the beginning of the year. Now that being said, I do think
• 1:08:46
  the Bills are the better team here in this situation.
• 1:08:49
  I understand the Broncos record. It looks pretty.
• 1:08:55
  It's shiny. They haven't beat a soul.
• 1:08:57
  I think it's a great spot for Josh Allen, who has not had the
• 1:09:01
  postseason success, but he has a shit ton of experience and
• 1:09:07
  against guys like Mahomes, guys that he loses in the in the
• 1:09:11
  playoffs to go on and win the Super Bowl.
• 1:09:13
  So he's been right there. This is Josh Allen's here to win
• 1:09:17
  it all. Outside of the NFC, when you got
• 1:09:19
  when you have, you know, Matt staff from the other side, there
• 1:09:22
  is nobody in these playoffs that would rather have than Josh
• 1:09:25
  Allen. I think they win this game.
• 1:09:26
  I think boat Nicks basically shows me a little bit of Auburn
• 1:09:30
  boat Nicks where he's just the moment is too big for him.
• 1:09:33
  Give me the Bills win this game on the road.
• 1:09:39
  All right, Wes, give us your number two.
• 1:09:42
  Well. I'm going to go to that game
• 1:09:44
  too, and I'm in the opposite of everything you said.
• 1:09:46
  So I don't really need to talk much other than I disagree with
• 1:09:50
  everything you had to say there. We are still friends, we always
• 1:09:53
  will be. But I, I just like Denver in
• 1:09:56
  this spot. I think that that the Bills,
• 1:09:59
  their depth at wide receiver is, I mean, they have 3 receivers on
• 1:10:02
  their roster right now. But I, I have been on the
• 1:10:06
  winning side of Josh Allen in the playoffs for seven years
• 1:10:09
  running now. Six years running, he he joshes
• 1:10:13
  in the playoffs. He he shows up big in some of
• 1:10:16
  these games, but there's always a key play that he joshes and
• 1:10:20
  doesn't win And it it's he doesn't have enough around him
• 1:10:25
  in terms of online in order to stop what the Broncos are going
• 1:10:29
  to be able to do. They have three active wide
• 1:10:31
  receivers on the roster and you're telling me that Sean
• 1:10:34
  Payton coming off a by with, you could argue the best defense in
• 1:10:38
  the league, but they're at least in a group of of top three
• 1:10:40
  defenses in the league. They won't be able to game plan
• 1:10:43
  for three wide receivers and only one of them is any good.
• 1:10:47
  I, I just, I think Josh Allen is going to get really beat up in
• 1:10:50
  this game and just cue the narrative and, and I hate it
• 1:10:54
  because I think that Josh is currently the best quarterback
• 1:10:56
  in football, but it's looking like he's going to have a very
• 1:11:00
  Peyton Manning start to his playoff career because he's
• 1:11:03
  going home. You know, I just want to point
• 1:11:06
  out that Josh Allen probably should have won last year.
• 1:11:09
  But when you're playing the refs too, doesn't really work out for
• 1:11:11
  you, does it? That's how they that's how they
• 1:11:13
  change the rules. I hear you.
• 1:11:15
  I'm I'm hearing you. But maybe, maybe the refs are
• 1:11:19
  against him for a reason. Maybe next year's the year with
• 1:11:22
  that new stadium. All right, Reno, give a shit #3.
• 1:11:27
  #3 we're going to stay in the NFL and it's going to be a play
• 1:11:30
  that I also did not really expect or like, but I'm going to
• 1:11:34
  lay the points here with the Seahawks.
• 1:11:37
  I, I think the, the Niners are outmatched in this situation.
• 1:11:41
  And I understand last week actually the public back then
• 1:11:43
  the public was actually heavier on the Niners.
• 1:11:46
  The public actually did really well last week.
• 1:11:48
  I think they went they lost one I think where the public game
• 1:11:51
  where they didn't win every other every other public play
• 1:11:54
  actually cash last week, which is probably why I didn't do too
• 1:11:56
  well. I think it's a good spot for the
• 1:11:59
  Seahawks. They're at home and the Niners
• 1:12:01
  are just banged up and they're banged up even more now.
• 1:12:04
  They do not have George Kittle tears the the Achilles last
• 1:12:08
  week. Their defense is still banged
• 1:12:09
  up. They didn't really, you know, I
• 1:12:11
  think I think the Eagles kind of gave that game away and you
• 1:12:15
  know, they had the trick play. I get, I just think that the
• 1:12:18
  Seahawks and I hate it because I, I've been a anti Sam Garneau
• 1:12:22
  probably his entire career, even more so when he's been on
• 1:12:25
  winning teams, because I don't think he I think he's really
• 1:12:27
  just put him in the system and that good enough.
• 1:12:30
  I think that they can blow out the night.
• 1:12:32
  I think they they they've really handled the Niners this season.
• 1:12:35
  Even games that might have been close.
• 1:12:36
  They dominated the metrics in those games.
• 1:12:38
  I think the Seahawks win this game by at least a touchdown.
• 1:12:41
  All right, Wes, give us your #3. You know, I'm going to agree
• 1:12:46
  with Johnny there, and this is a hard one.
• 1:12:47
  This is a very hard one for me to go Seahawks and, and this is
• 1:12:51
  a 7 1/2 point spread. Are you guys still seeing 7?
• 1:12:54
  And 1/2. I did too.
• 1:12:56
  This is a hard one because if you peel back everything going
• 1:13:01
  on this week, this is a division matchup and, and in regular
• 1:13:04
  season we, I mean, Johnny, you and I would say set anything
• 1:13:08
  about 6 in the division, you probably want to take the points
• 1:13:10
  or walk away. I mean that that's a that's
• 1:13:13
  that's kind of entry level, you know, handicapper stuff right
• 1:13:16
  there. But that being said, I agree
• 1:13:18
  with what Johnny just said about the Eagles.
• 1:13:21
  The Eagles kind of gave that game away and I don't think it
• 1:13:24
  was that trick play. I think where the Eagles gave
• 1:13:26
  the game away is just lack of an offensive plan.
• 1:13:29
  I think the Eagles defense did what it was supposed to do, but
• 1:13:32
  you're you're not going to keep CMC from from doing what he
• 1:13:36
  does. I mean, he's going to make an
• 1:13:37
  impact on the game. You're not going to shut down
• 1:13:39
  some of those players completely.
• 1:13:41
  But so I, I think that I think that, you know, Seattle, there
• 1:13:47
  was a game this year where they were they had like 40 points on
• 1:13:50
  the board in the first half. And it was just that they're
• 1:13:54
  defense. These these no name defensive
• 1:13:56
  players are just flying around like wild piranha, just taking
• 1:14:00
  bites out of everything that's going on.
• 1:14:02
  I think Donald's better quarterback than 30.
• 1:14:04
  That's not. True.
• 1:14:05
  All right, Reno, give us your final pick of the night.
• 1:14:09
  Final play, I'm going to do this like I've never done it before.
• 1:14:11
  I'm going to take this as a true parlay piece.
• 1:14:14
  So whatever W says in his parlay piece, this is what I would
• 1:14:18
  recommend doing if you're going to do a two team parlay because
• 1:14:21
  I never do it. So with all that said, I'm going
• 1:14:24
  to take a money line. I'm going to take a big money
• 1:14:27
  line. I'm going to take Indiana money
• 1:14:30
  line. So whatever Wes is going to give
• 1:14:32
  you, hopefully the top of take that minus 2250 or whatever it
• 1:14:36
  is, put it in a parlay piece. I've been against Indiana.
• 1:14:40
  I was against Indiana in in the last game.
• 1:14:43
  I was against Indiana all year. I, I think I bet Ohio Sabres,
• 1:14:46
  Indiana. I I've really been against that,
• 1:14:48
  that that the system and the coach and and all of it.
• 1:14:52
  And I, I can't do it because I thought Oregon was the best team
• 1:14:56
  in the country coming into this into last weekend and they put
• 1:14:59
  up 56 points. I lost, I lost.
• 1:15:04
  I lost some money last week. Let's not see how there was some
• 1:15:08
  coin lost. I was eating ramen for a couple
• 1:15:10
  days. It it was a game that I didn't
• 1:15:12
  expect. But at the end of the day, I
• 1:15:14
  think this offense is much better than Miami's.
• 1:15:17
  I do not, I still do not back Carson Beck.
• 1:15:19
  I think they're winning games, but it's nothing to do with
• 1:15:22
  quarterback. They do have a good defense.
• 1:15:24
  I think the the what's going to win this game is discipline.
• 1:15:28
  As good as Miami has been, they had three penalties on the
• 1:15:32
  drive. Two of them were were
• 1:15:33
  unsportsmanlike and they probably should have picked up a
• 1:15:36
  third. They had multiple false star
• 1:15:38
  penalties. You just don't get that out of
• 1:15:41
  Indiana. Their standard is a lot higher
• 1:15:44
  higher in Miami. They that's not acceptable.
• 1:15:47
  You will you will not see a late hit on Indiana in this game.
• 1:15:51
  You might see one or two out of Miami in big situation.
• 1:15:54
  So I I think the discipline of this game, Gimme Indiana to win
• 1:15:57
  the game personally. I'm also going to bet him on the
• 1:16:00
  spread and their team total because I do think that they're
• 1:16:02
  going to run away with this game.
• 1:16:04
  Whatever, whatever W says, parlay the money line with his
• 1:16:07
  butt. All right, W final pick of the
• 1:16:09
  nights. Yeah.
• 1:16:11
  So in the playoffs, I'm staying in the NFL.
• 1:16:15
  The only the only Rd. team that I actually have winning is is
• 1:16:18
  Houston. And it's outright.
• 1:16:20
  I don't, I don't think. And when you, when you look at
• 1:16:24
  these playoff games, you have to kind of peel back.
• 1:16:28
  You put the number aside for a second.
• 1:16:30
  But when you look at this game, is there a world where where New
• 1:16:35
  England went by less than 3? I don't see that world, which
• 1:16:40
  means I'm going to take I'm just going to take the three.
• 1:16:43
  Houston is is not going to just lose by two.
• 1:16:45
  I mean, that's a weird number. But I don't see CJ having a
• 1:16:49
  repeat of the kind of game that he had.
• 1:16:53
  I mean, he had a terrible game. CJ Stroud early in the game.
• 1:16:56
  And and I mean, I I believe CJI mean that's my favorite Buckeye
• 1:17:01
  of all time. But he tried very hard to give
• 1:17:04
  the Pittsburgh Steelers that game and their defense just
• 1:17:08
  wasn't going to have it. And I think that that defense up
• 1:17:14
  against Drake May is going to make him look like a a, a
• 1:17:19
  younger quarterback in the league, but I don't in New
• 1:17:22
  England. They're just not deep at
• 1:17:24
  receiver. They're going to have to run the
• 1:17:26
  ball and they they'll have success doing that, but nobody
• 1:17:31
  really has success doing anything against Houston.
• 1:17:33
  So they're going to be somewhat 1 dimensional.
• 1:17:36
  And I think that when they, Houston's going to have to put
• 1:17:39
  up some points early, They can't, they can't just come out
• 1:17:42
  the way that they did. But I, I think that Houston's
• 1:17:45
  going to outright win this game. It is wild that we're going to
• 1:17:48
  be possibly looking at Houston, Denver in, in a, in a conference
• 1:17:53
  championship game or, or Houston Buffalo even.
• 1:17:55
  I mean it's just, it's crazy, but I, I like them to win
• 1:17:59
  outright. I don't.
• 1:18:01
  Texas would be the home team. Figure that out.
• 1:18:05
  Well, boys, I love your picks and you both, Well, I'm sure
• 1:18:10
  you're both not picking the Patriots, and I love you even
• 1:18:12
  more for that. Anyways, Wes Reno, we love you.
• 1:18:16
  We'll see you next week. Yeah.
• 1:18:19
  See you next week. Yeah, I'll be on that Texas
• 1:18:21
  money line as well. And bear down.
• 1:18:24
  And bear down big time whore bag.
• 1:18:27
  Oh gosh. Poor bag.
• 1:18:29
  All right, there you go. Ladies and gentlemen, let's
• 1:18:32
  parlay Wes and Reno Johnny giving you their picks of the
• 1:18:36
  week. Thank you to all the fans out
• 1:18:37
  there, including our handicappers, Wes and Reno
• 1:18:41
  Johnny for joining us as they always do for let's Parlay
• 1:18:44
  giving us their picks. They were horrible last week.
• 1:18:47
  They've actually been horrible. They're actually horrible for
• 1:18:50
  the last two weeks. So hopefully this week it's a
• 1:18:52
  slam dunk for them and they get back on the winning ways for
• 1:18:56
  them because I know they, I know Wes, he'll probably jump off a
• 1:18:59
  bridge if he. Doesn't Boco undefeated?
• 1:19:01
  They're different on the Bills Broncos game.
• 1:19:03
  That's true too. Thank you to all the fans on
• 1:19:06
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• 1:19:09
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• 1:19:14
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• 1:19:17
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• 1:19:21
  mouth worldwide sports radio network.
• 1:19:23
  Everybody that follows us follows us on all our platform.
• 1:19:27
  Check out the weekend Crunch every Saturday at 7:00 PM.
• 1:19:30
  We have a great guest on this Saturday.
• 1:19:34
  We pre recorded it because I'll be in Montreal.
• 1:19:37
  So enjoy it, enjoy the show. It's definitely going to be a
• 1:19:40
  great one. And guys, I'm going to be off to
• 1:19:45
  Montreal after the show. It's something that I'm not
• 1:19:48
  looking forward to. 6 1/2 hours and I'm going to try to go full
• 1:19:52
  through. I don't know if I'm going to be
• 1:19:54
  able to. I might have to stop at a couple
• 1:19:55
  of gas stations and maybe drink a five hour, 5 hour juice or
• 1:20:00
  whatever the hell they're going to give me, but she.
• 1:20:02
  And coming back Tuesday for next week right there.
• 1:20:04
  Tuesday, I will be back on Tuesday.
• 1:20:07
  We obviously Joppa knows, everybody knows I'll be doing
• 1:20:10
  this. Well, we'll be doing a show
• 1:20:11
  Tuesday and Thursdays, Tuesday and Thursday next week, see how
• 1:20:16
  tired I am. And I got to drive in this.
• 1:20:18
  It's it's definitely going to be crazy, but I have to.
• 1:20:21
  Yeah, good luck is right. I'll be on the phone with a lot
• 1:20:24
  of different people all over the country keeping my eyes open,
• 1:20:27
  that's for damn sure. While she miss Percy will be
• 1:20:30
  sleeping and enjoying her sleep. So.
• 1:20:34
  And I'm waiting for her because she's getting ready.
• 1:20:36
  She dude, it took her five hours to get her nails done five hours
• 1:20:41
  today to get her nails done. It's stupid.
• 1:20:43
  It's absolutely stupid, but whatever we got through the
• 1:20:47
  show. I'm very happy about that.
• 1:20:48
  Thank you to all the fans that TuneIn follow us on all the
• 1:20:51
  social medias. We love you.
• 1:20:53
  Keep following us, keep checking out all the different stuff that
• 1:20:55
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• 1:20:59
  subscribing to us. We love you guys.
• 1:21:01
  We'll see you next week on Tuesday.
• 1:21:03
  Good night, it. Is the worldwide sports radio
• 1:21:06
  network, Radio Network.